I'm looking for a (cheapish) set of pipes that I can play now and again for busking, the odd pub gig and impromptu session when I'm out and about and other occasions when I don't want to have to take my big flashy set of Fletchers out. I've been offered a set of Polypenco pipes. Anybody here play a set or know anything about them? What is the difference in sound between plastic and blackwood drones? Or should I just spend a bit more on a battered old set of 78th-hand pipes off Ebay?

I have a friend that left a set of polypenco pipes in his car on a hot day. He leaned them up on the seat, and they now have a bend in the bass drone that they cannot straighten out. I have heard that the polypenco pipes have a nice sound. I have a polyenco blowpipe stock tied into my pipe bag. They don't crack like the blackwood stock that in there previously.